In the past I have read/worked through both “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron and “The Creative Call” by Janice Elsheimer. One of them, I’m not sure which, made an observation I thought was interesting. It was suggested that many people in jobs supporting the creative arts were, inffact, people who had wanted to be seriously involved in art but had somehow “failed”. Thwarted writers became editors or publicists. Mediocre actors became agents, stage hands, etc.

          I’ve begun to wonder if that is what is happening to me. (I write very little these days other than this blog and school assignments . . . and a few journal entries.) Am a walking away from writing? Is the joy and fulfillment I’m finding in my art classes a substitute? Am I really discovering other avenues of creativity? Or am I refusing to force my way through whatever fears are keeping me from writing?

          As part of my self-initiated therapy, I am rigorously scrutinizing any negative thoughts I have about myself. The atmosphere of negativity and perfectionism I’ve lived in for much of my life has inflicted much of the emotional damage of the past few years. The reason it is so damaging is because there is a grain of truth to all the negativity.

          Example: Yes, I do procrastinate. But that is an action, which can be addressed, not an evil character trait which makes me a bad person. (Yes, I have been told that.) And there have been multiple times in my life when that tendency to put something off for a bit has been the right thing to do. Last week is a perfect example. My father was visiting over my spring break. I had several mid-term projects that needed to be finished by this week. He only planned to stay a few days so I “procrastinated” some on the projects. Those I could do while talking with him, like drawing, I did, but those that needed research and devoted focus, I put off. That was a good decision. I gave him my attention, while still making progress on those projects. When he was gone, I dove into the other ones.

          These days when I have a negative thought, I analyze it. Sometimes it is easy to see the wrongness of it. (Although overcoming the emotions caused is always a struggle.) Example: I failed to pass the certification tests to become a certified nursing assistant. As a result I lost my job. My emotions and negative self-talk were telling me I was a failure and that trying to succeed at anything was a waste of time.. I should just resign myself to a subsistence life and stop trying. When scrutinized, though, the only truth in all of that is that I failed the tests. That does not mean I will always fail and can never succeed. Had the certification been important to me, I would have continued to pursue it and eventually would have passed the tests. (Another trait of mine is stubbornness . . . uh . . . determination.). As it is, I’ve found other goals that ignite my passion. I will pursue them . . . passionately. (And, in the process, fight those other negative voices that keep insisting I’m a quitter.)

          So there might be a grain of truth to the thought that I’m neglecting or avoiding writing in favor of other artistic endeavors. My task now is to ferret out that grain of truth, address it and reject (ie totally demolish) the lies.

          What negativity are you fighting? Wrestle the truth out of it and destroy the deceptive, entangling, destructive lies!

I wanted to post this for you guys a few weeks ago when Janice’s book first came out, but we were right in the middle of Author Crush Month. So now I can finally tell you what a great book it is!

Let me start by saying that I’m not a professional book reviewer. I’m not sure I could do it. I’ve read reviews over the years that are crushing! If I were writing in my private journal, I guess I could be ruthless. But what’s more likely to happen in a Kitty review is that I’ll be attacked by a mob of exclamation points! 

A few weeks ago, I read my friend (see, that’s where I’d put a disclaimer if I were a pro) Janice Cantore’s new book, Accused. I loved it! It’s about a Long Beach, California, police officer (Janice used to be one) who helps out in a homicide investigation only to be nearly killed a couple times by people trying to shush her. And some of the people involved may or may not be on the police force. Yikes!

Detective Carly Edwards, our heroine, owns a cool dog (points for that) and has a good-looking ex-husband who wants to win her back (points for that, too – come on, I write romances!). She also thinks her mom is very annoying when she talks about church and praying and stuff all the time.

Over the course of the book, Carly has to decide what to believe – about a lot of things. Is there a murder cover-up and could someone she know be involved? Has her ex-husband really changed his stripes? Is there really a God and what, if anything, is He willing to do for her?

I like Janice’s books because they’re fast-paced and full of action, yet the characters are fully developed so that you care what’s happening with each of them. Since she used to be a cop, everything seems real and believable. A couple times I wished she’d gotten us even more involved in the action, but I might be a bit of an adrenalin junkie when it comes to action in books, so you have to take that into consideration.

If you read Christian fiction, I think you’ll find Accused to be just what you’re looking for. If you don’t, but you like police action books, the faith-talk isn’t too distracting, especially since Carly doesn’t even want to talk about it for over half the book. When she does start thinking about it and asking questions of her friends, it’s not too heavy-handed. There are a couple conversations that dig deep into the topic of faith and God, but that’s the kind of book this is and it goes along with all the pages that have come before. The conversations answer questions the reader has been wondering about for the whole book, just like the conversations about who did it and why answer questions the reader has wondered all along.

Overall, I give the book 4 stars out of 5. (Caveat: I don’t give many 5-star ratings, so keep that in mind.) I’m definitely going to read the next two books in the series, Abducted, coming out in August, and a third book next year.

Also, if you haven’t read her Brinna’s Heart series, you should try The Kevlar Heart and A Heart of Justice. I’ve read both of those, too, and rate them both 4 stars. (And they both have a dog, too!)

Still not sure? Go read the first chapter on Amazon for free. And if you buy Accused, the first chapter of Abducted is in the back for free. (D’oh! Didn’t realize that till I started typing this! Need to go read it when I’m done!)

More disclaimers:

Disclaimer 1: Tyndale House Publishers gave me a free early review copy of the book. In return for reviews, of course. They didn’t make me promise to be nice though.

Disclaimer 2: I’d already pre-ordered the book on Amazon as soon as it became available. I’m thinking I might offer a free giveaway of book 1 sometime when book 2 or 3 comes out. I’m cool like that.

Disclaimer 3: I’m good friends with Janice and I love her! And I love her dogs! I would probably find a way to promote her books even without free copies. But you’d know if I didn’t like it because I’d be saying things like, Good use of white space with the paragraph indentations, and Lots of pages for the price, and Cute male model on the cover. Note I didn’t say any of those things. (I can’t talk about the cute male model anyway in case John might be reading!)

Disclaimer 4: I’d totally forgotten that she asked my husband if she could use his name so it was a complete surprise when FBI agent John Bucholtz walked onto a page! I screamed and John came running to find out how I’d hurt myself. Then he gave a manly yell when he saw his name. I’d still love the book even if Janice hadn’t immortalized my awesome husband. (Already own the book? Go to page 362!)

Disclaimer 5: I’ve never used disclaimers in a list before. It’s fun.

What a great month! I love Author Crush month. There is always someone you never heard of who becomes a new fave. I might’ve picked up three new favorites!

After reading Cat Weatherill’s blog post, I downloaded the Kindle sample of her book Wild Magic and fell in love! I absolutely must buy her book! Just reading a few pages of it, I became immersed in not just a magical story world, but an overwhelming sense of magic washing over me. I stopped reading several times and asked myself, how did she do that?! I’m totally going to keep reading and try to figure it out. I want my books to instill that sense of the magical!

Similarly, when I read the Kindle sample for Stephanie S. Saunders’ Villain School: Good Curses Evil, I was laughing out loud more than I was reading silently! Another must-buy for me!

The title alone made me curious about PJ Sharon’s upcoming release, Savage Cinderella. But reading the blurb on it, I’m hooked. I’ve got to give that one a try as soon as it comes out! (Release day is March 15.)

The rest of the posts this month had all kinds of new and interesting thoughts to consider.

James Scott Bell made me wonder if should give a little more thought to writing short stories. Hmm, something to think about.

Reading Jacqueline Diamond’s post about making her own book covers made me want to give it a try, if only for the fun of it.

Art Holcomb gave me a lot to think about with his thoughts on plotting the larger arc for a series, and how I need to stay enthusiastic about my story in order to write a great book.

Thanks to Gail Carson Levine, I am more determined to write wherever I have to, whenever I have to. I was ten minutes early for Bible study this week, so I turned on the inside light in the car, and wrote another few lines of my latest short story.

Debra Holland’s self-publishing journey is always inspiring, no matter how many times I read about it. Go Debra!

I loved that I’m not the only one who picks out just the right pretty or quirky notebook for my next story. Thanks, Nancy Rue!

And Stephanie’s posts about the books she’s reading that help her in her journey toward healing – well, I admire her so much for making it a public journey so that others might be helped as well.

Even though they aren’t really part of Author Crush month, per se, I also am tickled to death that my dear friends Janice Cantore, Lauraine Snelling and Kathleen Damp Wright put bookends to our month with fantastic tales of newly published novels!

Ahh, what a great month! I always feel so refreshed and excited and motivated by March 1! I hope you do, too!